Advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria, has slammed the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Army over the arrest and detention of popular Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu.
The group described as injustice the arrest of the actor for wearing ‘Biafran colours’, while controversial Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, roams freely with cruel bandits.
TheNewsGuru recalls that soldiers on Thursday had detained the actor around Upper Iweka Bridge in Onitsha for wearing an outfit with Biafra inscriptions.
In a viral video, Agu had denied the claims, saying his attire was a civil dress with an image of a rising sun and not Biafra.
The military later released the actor on Friday and handed him over the DSS.
DSS Spokesman, Peter Afunanya, who confirmed that Agu is in the custody of the secret police, said the law would take its full course.
However, reacting its statement titled, Chiwetalu Agu: HURIWA accuses military, DSS of ethnic profiling’, the group said, “The military and the DSS have clearly shown their inclinations towards ethnic profiling because on more than one occasion the Kaduna-based Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi was seen holding nocturnal meetings with the terrorists who kidnapped many school children and held them hostage for months in the forests but despite the obvious evidence that the said Ahmad Gumi made many television and newspaper appearances and granted extensive interviews including the one that he accused the military of helping to weaponise terrorists in the North-West, there was never any attempt on the part of the DSS or Army to invite him or arrest him for these treasonous acts of fraternizing and colluding with terrorists.
“But the Igbo Actor Chiwetalu Agu wore just a cloth with the flag of the defunct Biafra Republic which is not unlawful but the Army tortured him and thereafter handed him over to the DSS and the DSS is now saying that justice would be done and we ask, which justice? This is pure ethnic profiling and vendetta which is unconstitutional.”
The statement signed by HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated further, “We demand the immediate release of Mr Chinwetalu Agu by the DSS or they charge him to court so the world will see how low the country Nigeria has degenerated in the practice of apartheid policies by the current administration that releases and reintegrate Boko Haram Islamic terrorists.”